One Year Bible.

David Avenges the Gibeonites

¹During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD.

And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”

²At this, David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Israel and Judah, Saul had sought to kill them.)

³So David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends so that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?”

⁴The Gibeonites said to him, “We need no silver or gold from Saul or his house, nor should you put to death anyone in Israel for us.”

“Whatever you ask, I will do for you,” he replied.

⁵And they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us to exterminate us from existing within any border of Israel, ⁶let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.”

“I will give them to you,” said the king.

⁷Now the king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the LORD between David and Jonathan son of Saul. ⁸But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. ⁹And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

¹⁰And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain from heaven poured down on the bodies, she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

¹¹When David was told what Saul’s concubine Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had done, ¹²he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa.

¹³So David had the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan brought from there, and they also gathered the bones of those who had been hanged. ¹⁴And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish.

After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.

Four Battles against the Philistines

¹⁵Once again the Philistines waged war against Israel, and David and his servants went down and fought against the Philistines. But David became exhausted.

¹⁶Then Ishbi-benob, a descendant of Rapha, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels and who was bearing a new sword, resolved to kill David. ¹⁷But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, struck the Philistine, and killed him.

Then David’s men swore to him, “You must never again go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel may not be extinguished.”

¹⁸Some time later at Gob, there was another battle with the Philistines. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, a descendant of Rapha.

¹⁹Once again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

²⁰And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot— twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha, ²¹and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei killed him.

²²So these four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.

David’s Song of Deliverance

¹And David sang this song to the LORD on the day the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. ²He said:

“The LORD is my rock,

my fortress, and my deliverer.

³My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation.

My stronghold, my refuge, and my Savior,

You save me from violence.

⁴I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised;

so shall I be saved from my enemies.

⁵For the waves of death engulfed me;

the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.

⁶The cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

⁷In my distress I called upon the LORD;

I cried out to my God.

And from His temple He heard my voice,

and my cry for help reached His ears.

⁸Then the earth shook and quaked;

the foundations of the heavens trembled;

they were shaken because He burned with anger.

⁹Smoke rose from His nostrils,

and consuming fire came from His mouth;

glowing coals blazed forth.

¹⁰He parted the heavens and came down

with dark clouds beneath His feet.

¹¹He mounted a cherub and flew;

He soared on the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness a canopy around Him,

a gathering of water and thick clouds.

¹³From the brightness of His presence

coals of fire blazed forth.

¹⁴The LORD thundered from heaven;

the voice of the Most High resounded.

¹⁵He shot His arrows and scattered the foes;

He hurled lightning and routed them.

¹⁶The channels of the sea appeared,

and the foundations of the world were exposed

at the rebuke of the LORD,

at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

¹⁷He reached down from on high and took hold of me;

He drew me out of deep waters.

¹⁸He rescued me from my powerful enemy,

from foes too mighty for me.

¹⁹They confronted me in my day of calamity,

but the LORD was my support.

²⁰He brought me out into the open;

He rescued me because He delighted in me.

²¹The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness;

He has repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands.

²²For I have kept the ways of the LORD

and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²³For all His ordinances are before me;

I have not disregarded His statutes.

²⁴And I have been blameless before Him

and kept myself from iniquity.

²⁵So the LORD has repaid me according to my righteousness,

according to my cleanness in His sight.

²⁶To the faithful You show Yourself faithful,

to the blameless You show Yourself blameless;

²⁷to the pure You show Yourself pure,

but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.

²⁸You save an afflicted people,

but Your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.

²⁹For You, O LORD, are my lamp;

the LORD lights up my darkness.

³⁰For in You I can charge an army;

with my God I can scale a wall.

³¹As for God, His way is perfect;

the word of the LORD is flawless.

He is a shield to all

who take refuge in Him.

³²For who is God besides the LORD?

And who is the Rock except our God?

³³God is my strong fortress,

and He makes my way clear.

³⁴He makes my feet like those of a deer

and stations me upon the heights.

³⁵He trains my hands for battle;

my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁶You have given me Your shield of salvation,

and Your gentleness exalts me.

³⁷You broaden the path beneath me

so that my ankles do not give way.

³⁸I pursued my enemies and destroyed them;

I did not turn back until they were consumed.

³⁹I devoured and crushed them so they could not rise;

they have fallen under my feet.

⁴⁰You have armed me with strength for battle;

You have subdued my foes beneath me.

⁴¹You have made my enemies retreat before me;

I destroyed those who hated me.

⁴²They looked, but there was no one to save them —

to the LORD, but He did not answer.

⁴³I ground them as the dust of the earth;

I crushed and trampled them like mud in the streets.

⁴⁴You have delivered me from the strife of my people;

You have preserved me as the head of nations;

a people I had not known shall serve me.

⁴⁵Foreigners cower before me;

when they hear me, they obey me.

⁴⁶Foreigners lose heart

and come trembling from their strongholds.

⁴⁷The LORD lives, and blessed be my Rock!

And may God, the Rock of my salvation, be exalted—

⁴⁸the God who avenges me

and brings down nations beneath me,

⁴⁹who frees me from my enemies.

You exalt me above my foes;

You rescue me from violent men.

⁵⁰Therefore I will praise You, O LORD, among the nations;

I will sing praises to Your name.

⁵¹Great salvation He brings to His king.

He shows loving devotion to His anointed,

to David and his descendants forever.”

The Genealogy of Jesus

¹This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

²Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

³Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar,

Perez the father of Hezron,

and Hezron the father of Ram.

⁴Ram was the father of Amminadab,

Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

and Nahshon the father of Salmon.

⁵Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth,

Obed the father of Jesse,

⁶and Jesse the father of David the king.

Next:

David was the father of Solomon by Uriah’s wife,

⁷Solomon the father of Rehoboam,

Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

and Abijah the father of Asa.

⁸Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat,

Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,

and Joram the father of Uzziah.

⁹Uzziah was the father of Jotham,

Jotham the father of Ahaz,

and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.

¹⁰Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh,

Manasseh the father of Amon,

Amon the father of Josiah,

¹¹and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers

at the time of the exile to Babylon.

¹²After the exile to Babylon:

Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,

Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

¹³Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,

Abiud the father of Eliakim,

and Eliakim the father of Azor.

¹⁴Azor was the father of Zadok,

Zadok the father of Achim,

and Achim the father of Eliud.

¹⁵Eliud was the father of Eleazar,

Eleazar the father of Matthan,

Matthan the father of Jacob,

¹⁶and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary,

of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

¹⁷In all, then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

The Birth of Jesus

¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and was unwilling to disgrace her publicly, he resolved to divorce her quietly.

²⁰But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

²³“Behold, the virgin will be with child

and will give birth to a son,

and they will call Him Immanuel”

( which means, “God with us”).

²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and embraced Mary as his wife. ²⁵But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a Son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.

The Pilgrimage of the Magi

¹After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, ²asking, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

³When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴And when he had assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.

⁵“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler

who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.’”

⁷Then Herod called the Magi secretly and learned from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸And sending them to Bethlehem, he said: “Go and search carefully for the Child, and when you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him.”

⁹After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the Child was. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great delight. ¹¹On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they withdrew to their country by another route.

The Flight to Egypt

¹³When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”

¹⁴So he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

Weeping and Great Mourning

¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was filled with rage. Sending orders, he put to death all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸“A voice is heard in Ramah,

weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children

and refusing to be comforted,

because they are no more.”

The Return to Nazareth

¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. ²⁰“Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, for those seeking the Child’s life are now dead.”

²¹So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he learned that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”